Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Trash day

I have this strange fascination with garbage trucks (really all kinds of service-type trucks). -If you have absolutely no interest in garbage trucks, you might want to stop reading now. Although I've made comments about the garbage trucks in the various places we've lived to Devin, I don't think even he realizes (or maybe cares?) that I actually find them fascinating. I think this goes back to growing up in the boonies and having a burn barrel with periodic dump runs rather than a "waste disposal service" that actually comes to me. I appreciate the mechanism by which I put my trash out by the curb, and it magically disappears. Anyway, there are several things about our trash service here that are different from every other place we've lived. In Florida, for example, there was a team of about 3-4 guys who would come around twice a week with a standard crusher truck and take anything we left on the curb, including three foot high piles of yard debris. Here, maybe because the weather is frequently awful, there is one guy who drives a totally mechanized truck. There is this mechanical arm that comes out and picks the can up, lifts it to the top of the truck, and overturns it. Then it sets the can back down within inches of where it was picked up! I still have to stop and gape if I'm anywhere near when it happens, it's so cool to watch. It's almost surreal that this little teeny town of 10,000 people has mechanized trash trucks, of all things. Another difference is that the amount of trash we are allowed to have picked up is extremely limited (AND only once a week). The large blue can being lifted in this picture is actually our recycle bin. The other, much smaller, green can on the left is our trash can. It holds about 2 kitchen trash bags. Any yard waste we generate has to fit in this can also. Talk about incentive to recycle!